Chairwoman
Thompson requested that
everyone remember to stay focused on the one item of the meeting which was to
finalize the Strategic Plan.

ACTION AGENDA

a. STRATEGIC PLAN Mission, Vision, Goals and
Objectives of the Montana University System

Regent
Roehm moved for acceptance of the Strategic Plan as forwarded by the
Commissioner on October 10 and revised
by the following amendments.

Regent
Roehm moved to amend the Mission Statement to read "The Mission of
the Montana University System is to serve students through the delivery of high
quality, accessible, post-secondary educational opportunities, while actively
participating in the advancement of Montanas economy and society.

The
amendment was APPROVED
unanimously.

In
response to a question from Regent Mercer on how the Agriculture Experiment
Stations fit into serving students, Commissioner Crofts noted that strictly
speaking students are served by the stations although the number is small. Regent Hamilton added that any agriculture
producer or individual who works with the experiment stations, research centers
and other organizations affiliated with the university system are in fact
students when obtaining knowledge from the people who operate those
enterprises.

Regent Mercer moved to change the
wording of participating in the advancement of Montanas economy and society to read participating in
the preservation and advancement of Montanas economy and social structure.

His explanation was that he didnt understand the meaning of society, but his
concern was about the advancement since he believes it means to change things
from the way they are now. He stated
that some people in the state want to preserve the agricultural economy of the
state and he believes the word preservation is very important because there is a lot that
higher education can do and has done.
He believes that social structure makes more sense because it sounds like
something physical.

Regent Hamilton argued that once again they were
falling into the trap of wordsmithing a philosophical idea. She believes that
if society and social structure have no meaning, they probably shouldnt be in the mission statement at all.

Regent Semmens wanted to focus on the words in
the Mission Statement as he felt they were so important in terms of trying to
embrace the entire mission. He said he
specifically suggested the word society over social structure because social structure conveyed to him
something more of an economic social standing or structure and the word society
conveyed more the meaning of cultural events, community service, public service
in different ways, and advancing general knowledge, in addition to the economic
aspect. As to preservation or advancement his rationale
is that the term advancement does not exclude established industries, but is
to develop new strains of wheat, new soil testing methods, etc. to advance and
improve that very traditional industry.

Regent Mercer withdrew
his previous amendment and proposed
a change in the wording of the
last phrase to while actively
participating in the preservation and advancement of Montanas economy and society.

Regent Roehm noted that he tried to make this as
short as possible because brevity is helpful in a mission statement. He likes society because in the dictionary it says it is a body
of individuals living as members of a community as in a society of human
beings. That seems to encompass more
than social structure. As far as preservation and as Regent
Mercer suggested, except for making it more wordy, it does give additional
meaning and he would go along with it.

Restatement of Motion:
The Mission of the Montana University System is to serve
students through the delivery of high quality, accessible, post-secondary
educational opportunities, while actively participating in the preservation and
advancement of Montanas economy and
society.

The
amendment was APPROVED
unanimously.

Regent Roehm moved for the Vision
Statement to be modified as follows: We will prepare students for success by creating an
environment of ideas and excellence which nurtures intellectual, social,
economic and cultural development. We
will hold academic quality to be the prime attribute of our institutions,
allocating human, physical and financial resources appropriate to our
educational mission. We will encourage
scientific development and technology transfer, interactive information systems,
economic development and life-long learning.
We will protect academic freedom, practice collegiality, encourage
diversity, foster economic prosperity and be accountable, responsive and
accessible to the people of Montana.

Chairwoman Thompson noted that the Vision
Statement as brought forth from the Board Retreat read as follows: The Montana University System serves the citizens of Montana
and the public good through a diverse community of scholars and learners,
representing a rich academic tradition.
This community prepares graduates who are inquisitive, productive and
contributing citizens, not only in the state but also in the larger world
community.

Regent Hur complained that he didnt understand what the purpose of the retreat was
if everything was going to be modified at this time. He said he understood that Regent Mercer wasnt able to attend, but he felt that this telephone
conversation might not be the proper forum for modifying everything, because he
has a limitation where he is more of a visual person. He needs to see it in front of him.

Regent Semmens noted that not much time was spent
on the Vision Statement at the retreat due to lack of time. However Regent Hamilton had sent out
materials to all the Regents since that time which were absolutely on the mark
in that vision statements are supposed to be something you aspire to and
something that can induce a sense of vision, a sense of excitement, and his own
feeling on what the Vision Statement was before was that it didnt meet that test. This does. He further
offered that unlike the goals and objectives which have implementation aspects
associated with them, the vision statement does not. He believes this is a reasonable statement of the MUS vision, and
the ability to give further consideration to it and amend it is time sensitive
in relation to getting the goals and objectives agreed to so staff can move
forward.

Chairwoman Thompson noted that moving forward on
this does not mean it cannot be revisited at a later time. Nothing is set in concrete as the Mission, Vision,
Goals and Objectives are always a work in progress.

The ten minute warning was given, and the
Commissioner extended the call 15 additional minutes.

Regent Mercer noted to Regent Hur that the exact
language was sent out by e-mail that morning.
He indicated that he felt it was a big improvement over the previous
version but he was very interested in what the other regents had to say about
whether or not this is actually a vision.
He believes a vision is where
you want to go to, and he was concerned if the system is not currently
preparing students for success.

Regent Semmens stated that a vision statement
should describe what qualities the system aspires to reach to the fullest, and
to be useful it has to be something thats
achievable. He thinks if they were to
state that they are fully and to the utmost achieving all of these visionary
statements they would be kidding themselves.
He thinks its a good vision
statement because its guiding
actions for the MUS and it is both visionary and achievable.

Regent Roehm indicated he drew all this up partly
from what Regent Hamilton sent out in her e-mail, the strategic plan
discussion, and part of what her quoted experts say the vision should be: 1) to establish a standard of excellence;
2) give guidance that shows members what is expected of them and why, and
clarify the definition of success and desirable behavior. He doesnt look upon a
vision as something in the future that is not being done at this time. What he is trying to say is these are the
things MUS holds dear and this is where they want to put their emphasis to make
excellence in all these different areas.
Its not to say
that its not being
done, its to say that
they want to do it even better.

Regent Hamilton agreed with Regent Roehm and with
what Regent Mercer stated earlier. She
believes that this mission statement is nearly what Regent Mercer described in
his document on core values. These are
the things that MUS holds as their standard.

Restatement
of Regent Roehms motion: The Vision Statement is to be modified as
follows: We will prepare students for success by creating an environment
of ideas and excellence which nurtures intellectual, social, economic and
cultural development. We will hold academic
quality to be the prime attribute of our institutions, allocating human,
physical and financial resources appropriate to our educational mission. We will encourage scientific development and
technology transfer, interactive information systems, economic development and
life-long learning. We will protect
academic freedom, practice collegiality, encourage diversity, foster economic
prosperity and be accountable, responsive and accessible to the people of
Montana.

Motion approved unanimously.

This language
replaces the language in the original document.

GOALS FROM
PACKET

Regent Semmens suggested that in the interest of
time and to focus their energies, they consider the goals and objectives
together rather than individually. He
pointed out that the version provided by Regent Mercer was very similar to the
version that came out of the Montana City retreat with the exception that it
lacks four items. Two of those items
were included in what Regent Mercer called the core values. The other two items are to increase the
coordination of academic resources, to improve student progress toward degree
and to improve and expand the communication and outreach of MUS to
constituents, communities and policy makers.
He believes all the regents gave careful consideration to these concepts
at the retreat in Montana City. He
believes that both those concepts are important and perhaps Regent Mercer
actually believed they were just sort of encompassed in other things. He noted that there were two things in Regent
Mercers version that were not in the plan that came out
of Montana City. One is the expanded
use of outcome assessment to validate student achievement and acquisition of
essential skills which he thinks.......

Regent Hur Left
the Meeting

........is a subset of Item A-6 in the Montana
City version to ensure student readiness for higher education and document
student competencies for graduation. He
suggested as a way of partnering the Montana City version with Regent Mercers core values to change document to validate and to add the
second item to Goal E.

The call was timed out mid-sentence and then
re-established.

Regent Semmens restated that his only motion to amend the goals and objectives that came out of Montana City are Item 6 of Goal A to change document to validate to help clarify outcome assessment, and second,
in Regent Mercers plan item E-2
that states Partner with
state government or congressional delegation, K-12 education, tribal and local
governments, labor and business leaders to preserve and improve the economy of
Montana be added as another item to what was the Montana City Goal E.

With regard to core values in Regent Mercers plan, what the Montana City
plan called them was an operating philosophy.
They both are an attempt to state what the core values or philosophies
are for the MUS, but Regent Semmens does not believe that either set is a core,
central element of the plan itself.

He
therefore suggested that in order to move forward today that they move forward with the Mission and Vision
Statements and whatever goals are agreed upon today, and defer the inclusion of either a statement of
core values or an operating philosophy until a later date. He did believe there were some advantages to
setting the principles in the form of core values because its more succinct and easier to grasp. The advantage of the operating philosophy is
that more is said, and it is more inclusive but the essential principles are
the same in both presentations.

Jeff Weldon
rejoined the meeting

Regent
Semmens proposed they consider any other amendments to the goals and objectives
and to approve those with the amended mission and vision statements and defer
and direct staff to have a further look at how best to present the values or
principles or philosophies.

Regent
Semmens stated his amendment to Regent Roehms motion to approve the
goals and objectives as stated from the Strategic Planning Process in Montana
City is in Item A-6 of that plan to
change the word document to the word validate and under Goal E of that plan, to add an item that states as
follows: To partner with state government, our congressional
delegation, K-12 education, tribal and local governments, labor and business
leaders to preserve and improve the economy of Montana. This would be a
fourth item under Goal E.

Steve Snezek
returned to the call

Regent Semmens stated further that this amendment
applies to consideration of the goals and objectives alone. Not
included in the approval process today is either an operating philosophy or a
core value statement, but rather he encouraged staff to consider the
most effective presentation of the philosophies or values with that to be
considered at another time.

Commissioner Crofts advised Regent Semmens that
this should be offered as a subsequent amendment.

Motion approved unanimously

Regent Semmens proposed amending the Strategic Plan that came out of Montana City
to at this time remove the statement of
operating philosophies in their entirety with the understanding that staff and
the Board will work on a framework and presentation for presenting the core
values, philosophies and principles at a later time.

Regent Hur
returned to the call.

Regent Hamilton disagreed on this issue. Going back to what Regent Hur said earlier
this Board spent two days this year putting together this document and a lot of
time and thought went into it and there are guiding concepts in the material
that Regent Semmens has suggested not be included in the action today and theyre important concepts that Regent Hamilton thinks
the people who work in the system need to be aware of. Shes not willing to just say were going to table these concepts till later. She thinks the Regents have made a
commitment to these people and theyre already a
little behind in the time line set for this.
This is a living document. These
things can be revisited and reorganized, but that should be done when the whole
board is together. It shouldnt be done in a conference call situation and it
isnt fair to the campuses to eliminate this or wait
until some future time to give them these kinds of directions.

Regent Mercer asked the Commissioner how
differently the campuses would operate if the operating philosophy is adopted
as opposed to if it is not.

The Commissioner indicated many of these issues,
approaches, and beliefs have been talked about for a long time. He believes the campuses may go ahead and do
it anyway, but that doesnt address the
question of whether these are good ideas or not and whether or not the Regents
are ready to endorse them today or some other time. He is of the view that whatever they are called, these are
important notions and when the Regents say something, people are more likely to
do it.

Regent Semmens clarified that he did not intend
this be postponed for an extended period of time, but would like to see them
considered at some point in the November, 2001 meeting.

Regent Jasmin requested clarification of the
motion on the floor.

The Commissioner stated the motion on the floor
is to amend the document before
them by removing from it the section on operating philosophy with
the understanding that staff and Regents would come back to this subject at a
later point to clarify whether they would include an operating philosophy or
core values and what exactly those would be.

Regent Hamilton asked if they were assuming that
discussion would take place at the November meeting.

Regent Semmens stated that is what he wanted.

Regent Jasmin called for the question.

Regent Thompson restated the motion: to amend the Strategic Plan that came out of
Montana City to at this time remove the statement of operating philosophies in
their entirety with the understanding that staff and the Board will work on a
framework and presentation for presenting the core values, philosophies and
principles at a later time.